NEW IDE Controller & TOS 2.06 board (with extras)

[joska]

What I *really* would like for my old 520ST is a 16MHz accelerator with 10Mb SRAM, flash-RAM for TOS/MagiC and an IDE-port/CF-slot. All accessed at 16MHz

[DarkLord]

What I *really* would like for my old 520ST is a 16MHz accelerator with 10Mb SRAM, flash-RAM for TOS/MagiC and an IDE-port/CF-slot. All accessed at 16MHz

What, no video upgrade?

[alanh]

Plans... Plans... Plans....

[joska]

What, no video upgrade?

If I want to use an Atari with a graphics card I can use my Milan My ST has Lacescan installed, that's enough for me.

[DarkLord]

Plans... Plans... Plans....

Alan, you tease!

[alanh]

Here's a piccy of the STFM version, but there's some issues here. The space inside the STFM with the 68000 underneath the keyboard is extremely tight on space. So I either do this and expect people to solder it directly to the 68000, meaning it's not going to get unplugged once soldered. If people have re-cased STFM's then this probably isn't an issue and you can solder a socket ontop of the 68000 to plug the IDE board into. NOTE: There is no TOS upgrade on this, it just provides the pins to attach a ROM upgrade board.

Or.... Make a different version which plugs partially onto the GLUE and partially on to the SHIFTER/ROM sockets. Meaning it's a split board with cables attaching them together. The benefit of this approach is that the ROM2 signal is directly available on the GLUE and I could easily add TOS upgrade sockets onto the board.

What do people think ?

ide-stfm.jpg

[Guest]

nice !!!!
i want more than one for sure
if i can help in anyway just pm me
as i said i have a nice stfm 2 rom 4MB board i can donate too use
perhaps a flash tos added is easy to do,,,something like
remove roms leave the sockets blank or for a plug in carrier for data and address etc
replace with flash roms onboard i have about 50 29F flash roms if needed
fix one address as constant image say 1.00 then flash in 1.04 emutos etc,,,
i see 44pin sockets NICE!!!
i want 2 and will help with debug if needed
ide to sdcard is easy if you add a current design chip
and a 4 wire or 5 wire socket
so the machine can have internal sdcard or external
perhaps just a socket and add some bind logic can add two sdcards or one
to a dedicated ide slot
so perhaps like tos 2.08 on the stbook and its ram allocation can be reused
2.08 seems to have to have no patches needed
for 2.06 limits
so i think st X can have 2.08 and its apps and still have a drive p as a ram. or flash rom socket
with very little patches to the tos
just the address of drive p needs changes
i expect this ide to outperform even pperas and popsels stuff
very well done!!!
not we need a decent vga upgrade to stfm then ste
think its best to clone the shifters functions in
FPGA 4 bit plane and 5 bit plane will translate in bin calculation + colour correction you simply add on a divided plane or 4 or 5
as the libs are available free for SVGA output from fpga
and its easy to scale as needed for ste and st mega and mega ste for med low res
better watch out your board is'nt copied

if you need upfront cash i see no issues as long as it on the same model as the ct63 issues


adding a virtual flash rom as a drive can be done

so when you open the drive even it is the rom image in memory in realtime

you can load an image to the ram drive then choose to relocate it
or other using a simple command even from mint etc

[RA_pdx]

Hi alanh.

Would it be also possible to add a realtime clock to the board? I think with this option/feature it would be really perfect.

[alanh]

RTC is an option, but it would require more IC's to do the address decoding, pushing up the cost. It seems there are some Dallas 1216 chips that plug into the ROM socket which just work. Check this thread....

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 9&p=225713

So it's probably easier to do that.

[alanh]

3 x STE boards are in. Will solder up this weekend and report back.

[zonky900]

Hey, would these boards work on a STacy as well? I might like to upgrade the 20mb hd in it and throw in some more RAM and a 1.44mb support.

If so, count me in for one of those instead of one for a STfm.

[alanh]

If you look at the very first pictures of this thread, that's the prototype in my STacy.

[Uguru]

Very good news, Iḿ also interested on having an HD or SD/CF card inside my STFM!

[alanh]

Just a quick update. Soldered 99% of the first board, but I'm out of some of the 1206 resistors. Just ordered and they'll be in this week.

Soldering 0805 is not fun

[alanh]

Here's a shot of the STE board in my STE, working nicely with a IBM 2.5" drive.

Completely solderless as I use a clip to attach to the ACSI interrupt line

photo.JPG

[joska]

I want one How much is it?

[alanh]

There's a couple of things yet.

1. I'm not entirely happy with the STE adapter that plugs into the 68000 socket. There's a chance that if you unplug the board the pins on the PLCC adapter no longer make contact with the 68000 as they can get compressed and therefore the STE doesn't boot up. You plug the board back in and hey presto, things start to work again. This is just a warning to folks that this could happen on the STE. I'm trying to source some slightly smaller component that should help here, but I can't guarantee that it doesn't compress the pins and would never happen.
2. Quantity affects cost. Given I've only made three boards at this time and I'm hand soldering (not great and time consuming) and buying only small amounts of components, I reckon they'd cost about £50 + postage. I can seriously get that down and professionally soldered if the quantity goes up. Probably around £30 + postage.

I'm going to test things out some more.....

[Guest]

there is a cure for the pins issue alan marpet boards have this issue also
they mount the thin gold pins to the back of the plcc pin wiper
there is a small access hole
you use a needle and push it foward to the pin
this releases the top of the wiper from the socket
not the best but solves the issue

you dont get the disconnect thing but the small pins are long at i think @1cm or 1.2 cm and thin at around .35mm
to fit in the smaller hole

its quite easy to do it this way

excellent job for sure!!

[alanh]

Hi simbo, that's what I already do, is insert into the back of the pin.

The thing is that the pin still pushes forward and can get compressed.

Oh, and if you know where to source 0.35mm that would be fantastic.

[Guest]

hi

you can take apart a scsi or ide connector to get the pins they are .35mm square
but your better with flat ones
not sure where to get them other than from connectors like micro D etc
you can find silver plated .5mm pins on ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=0 ... &_from=R40

ill look later and see if i can find the supplier i used before

[Guest]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Spring-Load-0 ... 2a26ad561e

wow found a peach of a pin for testing stuff

pays to look on ebay for mad things

[alanh]

The ones used on SCSI/IDE are not 0.35mm, they're more like 0.46mm on 44 pin IDE, and bigger on 40 pin IDE, but maybe were talking about different things.

There is no way an IDE pin would plug into the access hole. I'm currently using 0.41mm, but could use smaller.

[alanh]

Found some better 0.4mm connectors. Should arrive next week.

[joska]

2. Quantity affects cost. Given I've only made three boards at this time and I'm hand soldering (not great and time consuming) and buying only small amounts of components, I reckon they'd cost about £50 + postage. I can seriously get that down and professionally soldered if the quantity goes up. Probably around £30 + postage.

I'd buy one even at £50. It's still a lot cheaper than the current SD/ACSI solutions, and a neater solution too. I guess you will announce it here when you're ready to ship.

[Dal]

True. A few people would pay £50 for one, however I reckon just about everyone would buy 2 if they were £30 each. I know I would.